Grizzlies Return The Favor And Dump RoadRunners 6-1
February 7, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners News Release
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - James Brannigan recorded his first hat-trick of the season to propel the Utah Grizzlies to a 6-1 win over the Phoenix RoadRunners before 5,362 at the "E"-Center in ECHL action Saturday.
Utah (16-15-3) jumped out to a 2-1 first period lead. The RoadRunners (20-21-3) actually opened the scoring at 4:19 on the power play when Mitch Carefoot deflected Dane Crowley's shot from the right point past Grizzlies goalie Peter Mannino for a 1-0 lead. Utah responded less than six minutes later as Brannigan finished off a two-on-one rush with Evan Kotsopoulos and worked the puck over the shoulder of RoadRunners goalie Kyle Jones and into the net at 10:32 for his first goal of the night to tie the game at 1-1. Tom May gave the Grizzlies their first lead of the evening less than three minutes later when he scooped up a bouncing puck in the slot and fired a shot past Jones and in at 12:42 of the period.
Brannigan and Kotsopoulos teamed up again early in the second period to build the Utah lead to two goals. With Daniel Sisca checking out of the penalty box, Kotsopoulos found Brannigan with a cross-ice pass at the left-wing circle and Brannigan snapped the puck over Jones' shoulder and into the back of the net at 8:45 making it 3-1. Brannigan completed the hat-trick at 15:55 of the second when he squeaked the puck through Jones' pads from the left-wing boards to increase the Grizzlies lead to 4-1.
Mark Pavli and Tim Verbeek added power play goals at 2:07 and 6:31 of the third period respectively to cap the scoring.
Utah out-shot Phoenix 33-25. Jones stopped 27 shots but suffered the loss and fell to 1-8-1 season. The RoadRunners went 1-5 on the power play while Utah was 2-6 with the man-advantage.
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